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Lindsey Howald

Saturday

Jun 27, 2009 at 12:01 AMJun 27, 2009 at 7:50 AM

To save the FISH fund, local pastors are calling on other churches to help.

The 28-year-old charity fund’s name comes from an acronym — Faith in Service to Humanity — but no one really calls it that. FISH has meaning enough. For Christians, the ichthys, better known today as a “Jesus fish,” partially referred to Jesus’ hospitality when he miraculously fed 5,000 people. In other faiths the fish has symbolized transformation, growth or happiness.

Started in 1981 by the Columbia Interfaith Council, the fund attached itself to Voluntary Action Center, which distributes it free of administrative costs. Although VAC provides a number of different services, it draws from this fund specifically to help people who are “between the cracks,” as the Rev. Jim Bryan of Missouri United Methodist Church puts it.

“It’s trying to help people who are … on the margin, and with just a little bit of help, they can maintain their place and a little sense of dignity,” said Bryan, whose church budgets $1,500 to $2,000 annually to give to FISH.

Bryan and a number of other downtown religious leaders — people like Pastor John Baker of First Baptist Church and the Rev. Paula Robinson of Calvary Episcopal Church, among others — casually get together to discuss the needs of their city. They were approached recently by Minister Dennis Swearngin of Olivet Christian Church and VAC Executive Director Cindy Mustard with unsettling news: The fund was not taking in nearly as much as it was giving out.

Mustard fears a repeat of 2007, when the FISH fund plummeted to zero. With a limit of $50 per year per household, VAC gives this money to people in Boone County who can’t afford prescription medication, a tank of gas during a hard month, forms of identification or a uniform for work. In the fall of 2007 Mustard pled with locals through David Lyle’s radio show on KFRU and, amazingly, received $20,000 in two weeks. None of that, however, came from local churches. Instead, businesses and individuals filled the gap.

Money “is not coming in as much from the churches,” Mustard said. It is little comfort that the need is now greatly exceeding the means, and the 30 or so local churches that routinely donate just aren’t enough. Mustard says there has been a 38 percent increase in new families served this year, the number of veterans has jumped by more than half, and there are 31 percent more families dealing with unemployment. Conversely, donations to the FISH fund dropped incrementally. Last year the total raised — including secular donations — was about $31,000. Just five years ago, people gave $43,000.

Bryan, Swearngin and a half-dozen other leaders from various faith communities are now working together, writing letters to churches who have never donated, touting the merits of VAC and asking them to encourage their congregants to give. They’re worried that if they don’t raise $25,000, services will have to cease again.

Churches can only give as much as they’re getting in, and tithes, gifts and donations have decreased. Lately many formerly generous church-goers have watched stocks and 401(k) funds deflate. Others have lost their jobs or can’t afford to give when incomes don’t rise to meet inflation. When its congregants tighten their budgets, a church has no choice but to follow suit.

Even Rim Massey, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, who contributes and has long acted as the go-between for the Interfaith Council and VAC regarding the fund, understands this.

“People who have invested in this country … are really hurting,” he said. Decreased giving is “certainly going to cause churches to look at their priorities. I know it’s caused us to look at our priorities in terms of what we’re going to be able to do” about a budget. Still, he calls the FISH fund “one of the best values in giving there is” because every dollar donated goes directly to services.

If the FISH fund is boosted, “truly, hundreds of people would be able to maintain their place of employment,” Bryan said. “They would be able to maintain their living quarters and have some sense of the dignity of life.”

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